Google’s Video Intelligence API can recognise objects in a video

Google's new video intelligence tool can understand, and dissect video just as a human would thanks to machine learning.

Machine learning and AI has been Google’s core strength, and this has reflected across its range of consumer products. The smart replies in Inbox, the ability of the Google Assistant to search for images from a particular keyword or phrase. Now Google wants to emphasis that its cloud platform is just as smart, and driven by Machine Learning tools that can be used by enterprise customers.

At the ongoing Next conference in San Francisco, Google’s chief scientist for cloud and machine learning Dr Fei Fei Li, unveiled a new tool that could allow for computers to understand and decode a video, just how humans do; the new Video Intelligence API. Li, who is the head of AI lab at Stanford and currently on a sabbatical leave for her stint at Google, is credited with helping build ImageNet. ImageNet is one of the largest repositories for images, and is used for machine learning and training AI.

In the current state of machine learning for images, computers are taught to learn or understand an object by constantly showing them pictures of the same object. For instance, in order for the computer to recognise the picture of a dog, the machine learning algorithm is shown a lot of pictures of dogs. In fact, Photos app by Google can recognise pictures of food, dogs, or even cats thanks to the advancements in machine learning, although this is still at a basic stage, and far from the kind of AI that scientists dreaming of creating.

While training computers to understand images is something that Google has been good at, videos is another matter. In fact, according to Dr Li, it is the ‘dark matter’ of the digital universe, but it looks like Google has cracked how to decode some part of this. Essentially Google’s new Video Intelligent tool, which is for now in private beta, will able to identify the exact part of a video that a user wants to find.

The tool, which Google wants to make available to enterprises, would allow for videos to be searchable and discoverable just like photos are currently on the Google Photos app. In its demo during the keynote address, Google showed how the tool could figure out exact labels; when asked to find beach or baseball from a series of videos the tool was able to locate exactly which clips had images of a beach/baseball and at what points.

Essentially a user would search each shot, frame thanks to the tool, without relying manually, in order find the exact video footage.

According to Google, the API can annotate videos stored in Google Cloud Storage, and label each of the objects. Labelling means it can figure out the daily objects or items inside the video. So even if your clips are named randomly, the tool will still let you search, for say footage of a beach, as Google showed in the demo.

Google also says the tool can detect scene changes within the video, and can help organisations with media archiving and boost content discovery for video. This API relies on Google’s current vision recognition models, which are also driving video search in YouTube.

Google also announced improvements to its Cloud Vision API which include expansion of meta data from the company’s knowledge graph. Essentially Google is bringing its successes in the consumer side of business, and offering them to enterprises, as it seeks to catch up with Amazon and Microsoft in the race for the cloud.

HP Launches 'Centre of Excellence' to Support Digital India

In line with the government's Digital India initiative, HP Inc on Wednesday launched its first 'Centre of Excellence' (CoE) in India.

The facility is dedicated to demonstrating innovative solutions developed locally that have the potential to digitally transform the country.

The 4,000 square-feet facility aims to showcase multiple solutions for sectors such as education, healthcare, BFSI (Banking, Financial services and Insurance) and manufacturing.

"The CoE will allow government and non-government stakeholders to have a practical understanding of the solutions making it easier for decision makers to take a step forward towards comprehensive digitisation of the nation," said P.P. Chaudhary, Minister of State for Law and Justice, in a statement.

Developed in collaboration with over 25 system integrators that include top IT software companies, the CoE will be used as a platform to exhibit solutions relevant to government and businesses.

"HP India over the years has delivered transformational technology solutions to help make the Digital India vision a reality," added Rajiv Srivastava, Managing Director, HP Inc India.

North Korea Launches 4 More Missiles, Three Land In Japanese Waters

HIGHLIGHTS

• ·        Missile fired flew over 600 miles across North Korea into Japan waters
• ·        Japan said that it had detected 4 missiles coming from North Korea
• ·        Launch coincides with annual exercises between US, South Korea militaries

TOKYO: North Korea launched four missiles Monday morning, a provocative barrage that coincided both with joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises on the southern half of the peninsula and with the opening of the annual National People's Congress in China.

The launches follow a remarkable month in which Kim Jong Un's regime tested a solid-fuel rocket that it says is part of an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of hitting the United States and in which the regime is accused of assassinating the leader's half brother. Both actions have angered allies and adversaries in the region, and Monday's launches will only exacerbate that.

"Every year this time, they try to do something to defy the exercises," said Bruce Bennett, a North Korea expert at the Rand Corp. in California. "This time, I think they're also interested in making a statement to the Chinese and to let Beijing know this coal ban is going to hurt," he said, referring to Beijing's decision last month to stop importing coal from North Korea, cutting off a major economic lifeline.

The four missiles were launched from a known launch site on North Korea's west coast, not far from the border with China, at 7:36 a.m. local time. They flew more than 600 miles across the country before splashing into the sea between Japan and the Korean Peninsula, the South's Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a text message to local reporters.

The joint chiefs initially suspected that at least one of the projectiles might have been an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of hitting the United States' West Coast, but later backed away from that analysis. A U.S. defense official said the Pentagon does not think the missile was an ICBM.

The U.S. Strategic Command said its systems detected and tracked the projectile but "determined the missile launch from North Korea did not pose a threat to North America."

Regardless, the launches have ratcheted up the tensions in the region.

"South Korea strongly condemns North Korea's missile launch today as a direct challenge and grave provocation despite warnings by the international community," Hwang Kyo-ahn, the prime minister who is acting president said during an emergency meeting of the national security council. "North Korea's nuclear missile provocation is a real and imminent threat against the lives and safety of South Koreans."

In Japan, the government said three of the missiles had landed perilously close to Japan, splashing down within its exclusive economic zone and within about 200 miles of its coastline in Akita prefecture.

"These missile launches clearly show that North Korea has developed a new threat," a visibly worried Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters in Tokyo. "We will collect information and strongly protest to North Korea."

Bennett of Rand said the range of the missiles could have served as a warning to China. The missiles had 12 of China's 20 largest cities within reach, he said.

North Korea has repeatedly claimed to be working on an ICBM capable of reaching the West Coast of the United States and has been making observable progress toward this goal. In his New Year's address, Kim said North Korea had "entered the final stage of preparation for a test-launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile."

Regardless of whether Monday's launch was an ICBM, it is just a matter of time until North Korea succeeds in its goal of making one, said Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia Non-Proliferation Program at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey in California.

"It doesn't matter if it's today or tomorrow or next week or next year - that's where this is heading," Lewis said. "But we have no plan other than saying this is unacceptable or that it won't happen," he added, referring to a tweet from President Trump earlier this year.

After Kim's statement in a Jan. 1 address that North Korea was working on its ICBM program, Trump tweeted: "It won't happen!"

His administration is reviewing its policy toward North Korea, which was characterized as "strategic patience" during the Obama administration - waiting for sanctions to hurt and a humbled Kim to come to the negotiating table.

The latest provocation came as large-scale military exercises, involving more than 320,000 South Korean and U.S. troops and high-tech U.S. firepower, continue in South Korea. They began last week and will continue through the end of April.

In the past year or two, the exercises have become more overtly offensive, with the two militaries practicing "decapitation strikes" on the North Korean leadership.

North Korea denounced the exercises and warned last week that it was ready to retaliate. North Korea "will never remain a passive onlooker to the new U.S. administration overtly revealing its intention to put military pressure on [North Korea] and invade it while crying out for 'peace by dint of strength,' " the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported in a statement it attributed to the foreign ministry.

North Korea last month launched an intermediate-range missile, its first since Trump was elected president. The missile appeared to show significant technological advances, with upgraded power and range, and analysts said it could mark another step in the push toward the capacity to hit Alaska or Washington state.

After that, Kim's regime is suspected of ordering the assassination on the leader's half brother, Kim Jong Nam, who was attacked with a chemical weapon at the airport in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and died within 20 minutes.

The assassination led the Trump administration to cancel visas for North Korean diplomats to go to New York for meetings with former U.S. officials involved in North Korea policy, which would have been the first time in more than five years that such a meeting had taken place on U.S. soil.

Online Video Streaming Service, Netflix Partners With Bharti Airtel to Provide Content via STBs

Netflix, the popular video-streaming service today announced that they are collaborating with Airtel, Vodafone, and Videocon d2h to provide content services in India. Netflix CEO, Reed Hastings has announced the partnerships with the top three DTH service providers in India, and the man himself is visiting India today to take care of the partnerships.

Netflix forayed into the Indian market in January 2016 and had received a good reception from the audience. However, the company has got a new rival in the form of Amazon Prime Video recently and is now looking to strengthen their user base in India with these partnerships.

Bharti Airtel, India’s largest telecommunications network announced that the Netflix app will be integrated into the Airtel’s set-top-box and helps users in streaming the content in lot easier way. Along with Airtel, Videocon also announced that the application would be integrated into their D2H. Also, Videocon announced that they would be deploying a dedicated button for Netflix in their STBs.

Aforesaid, Netflix also partnered with Vodafone and subscribers of Vodafone can adjust the payment in their monthly payment cycle and the service will be available for both prepaid and postpaid consumers.

Speaking on the collaboration, Gopal Vittal, Managing Director and CEO (India and South Asia) Bharti Airtel said: “Airtel has been a pioneer in bringing the best of global content and products to its customers [and] we are delighted to partner with Netflix.”

“India is one of the most important and vibrant countries in the world, and we are delighted to be teaming up with three of its leading companies to make it much easier for consumers to enjoy Netflix. In the months and years to come, we look forward to bringing our Indian members’ more compelling stories from all over the world, and ever-improving viewing experience, and incredible joy,” said Reed Hastings.

Currently, there’s no information on when the services will be made available and how much does it cost for the subscription per month. Recently, there were some rumors claiming the same and Netflix has today announced the collaboration not only with Airtel but with three other main players in the country. We will keep you updated once after the subscription details go live.

Nokia, BSNL to develop 5G ecosystem in India

Nokia and state-run telco Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) will team up to accelerate the development of a 5G ecosystem in India.

Nokia and state-run telco Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) will team up to accelerate the development of a 5G ecosystem in India. With this partnership, Nokia will help the transaction of BSNL through its 5G end-to-end solution, including its AirScale radio access portfolio and AirFrame data centre platform for extreme broadband and ultra-reliability and low-latency communication.

“This joint initiative will go a long way to help us meet the future data demands in a most cost-effective way,” said Anupam Shrivastava, CMD of BSNL.

BSNL will leverage Nokia’s 5G-ready product portfolio and expertise to develop use cases for both enterprise and retail customers. Nokia will further help BSNL in spectrum assessment and in optimization of the same to deliver on the promise of 5G.

The combination of high speed and low latency in 5G raises a host of possibilities, such as remote healthcare, virtual reality, augmented reality, connected cars, and full automation of homes and businesses, among others.

“We will leverage our global experience in 5G-related industry projects and collaborations to enable BSNL to evolve their networks for the programmable world,” Sanjay Malik, head of India Market, Nokia, said in a statement.

The development comes after Samsung partnered with Reliance Jio to bring 5G connectivity in India. Earlier this week, Bharti Airtel and Nokia announced a strategic roadmap for rolling out 5G services in the country.

Android smartphone users more likely to download malware than iPhone users

This week,132 Android apps in the Google Play store were found to be infected with malware

Apple iPhone users are less likely to download malicious apps than Android smartphone owners - for now. Earlier this week, cybersecurity company Palo Alto Networks discovered 132 Android apps infected with malware in the Google Play store.

One of the most popular apps had been downloaded more than 10,000 times.

Google has removed the apps.

"Our investigation indicates that the developers of these infected apps are not to blame, but are more likely victims themselves," Palo Alto Networks said in a blog post. "We believe it is most likely that the app developers’ development platforms were infected with malware that searches for HTML pages and injects malicious content at the end of the HTML pages it finds."

Why are hackers targeting Android users? Simple - it's easier.

The Google-developed operating system is "more open and adaptable," said security software company Sophos.

Any app featured in the iOS store has gone through an in-depth examination - the thorough process blocks "widespread malware infection" among iPhone users, but malware targeting iOS-based systems is on the rise, according to a report from SIXGILL last month.

Applications infected with malware are becoming problematic for app developers and users. Cybersecurity experts have warned smartphone owners to refrain from downloading third-party apps from unofficial sources, but the presence of malicious apps in official stores make it difficult for users to identify which ones can be trusted.

IBM Sets Sight on Quantum Computing

After laying the groundwork for offerings in emerging tech categories like artificial intelligence (see: Watson) and blockchain (see: Hyperledger and Fabric), IBM sees quantum computers as a big, if nascent, business opportunity.

Unlike traditional computers, quantum ones are designed to harness the wonkier properties of physics to perform far more complex operations. Whereas a conventional computer stores information as "bits" in two states—1 equaling "on" or 0 as "off"—a quantum computer uses "qubits" to hold multiple states at the same time, thus unleashing the weird "superposition" property of quantum mechanical particles for exponential power.

Since IBM (IBM, -0.27%) opened up access to its own fledgling quantum computing system to the public in May, approximately 40,000 people have run more than 275,000 experiments on it to date, the company said Monday. The system today consists of a 5-qubit processor that anyone can play with via the Internet.

IBM sees the level of engagement by outsiders as encouraging. To get more people up and running with the tech, the company on Monday released a new application programming interface, or API, allowing developers to build new software integrations between classical computers (like the one you're using to read this story) and IBM's existing quantum computing system, which resides at a research lab in Yorktown Heights, N.Y. IBM is also releasing a simulator that can model 20-qubit circuits and, in the coming months, it plans to put out a full software development for programmers.

For Big Blue, this is just the beginning. The company also has plans to make quantum computing commercially available in coming years.

"We see a direct path to the 50-qubit range," says Scott Crowder, vice president and chief tech officer of IBM's quantum computing division, eyeing a target that would give the quantum system an edge over classical ones for certain computational problems. "Within the next few years we'll make it commercially available for the cloud for people to use."

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Although IBM declined to specify an exact time frame for the commercial availability—it's contingent upon researchers overcoming many engineering obstacles—the company is seeking to prepare prospective customers for thinking about how quantum computing might fit into their business operations within the decade.

Right now, IBM hopes to persuade programmers to start experimenting with the tech so they may one day use it to make breakthroughs in chemistry, medicine, logistics, finance, and other sciences and industries. IBM is betting that quantum computing will grow increasingly important as Moore's Law—a rule that governed the advancement of semiconductors and computational power in past decades—reaches its limits.

IBM Quantum Computing Scientists Hanhee Paik (left) and Sarah Sheldon (right) examine hardware inside an open dilution fridge.

Unlike D-Wave, a Canadian company that introduced a quantum computer for specific applications (both Google (GOOG, -0.21%) and NASA have been testing it out), IBM is aiming for a "universal" quantum computer, one that can flexibly model all sorts of undreamt-up scenarios.

"At the moment we find ourselves in something like the early '40s or '50s of computing," says Dario Gil, vice president of science and solutions at IBM Research, referring to the era that spawned the modern computer. "At that time no one foresaw the possibilities of how computers would evolve."

IBM is not alone in the effort. The company has six partners in its IBM Research Frontiers Institute that are collaborating on quantum hardware and software design, including Samsung, JSR, Honda (HMC, +0.52%), Hitachi Metals, Canon (CAJ, +0.24%), and Nagase.

Bob Sorensen, an analyst at the research firm IDC, says that while the technology holds great promise, it will not be ready for primetime for a number of years—and it must be demonstrated to improve upon the computers we have today. "By offering a series of announcements, IBM is tapping people on the shoulder saying, We're committed to this," he says.

Sorensen adds, "It's an incremental process."

New technique may lead to faster, efficient computers

HIGHLIGHTS

·        Versatile microchips that could revolutionise the speed, efficiency and capability of the next generation of computers.

·        The innovative new research focused on developing a versatile, multi-functional technology to significantly enhance future computing capabilities.

·        The discovery could revolutionise the production of optoelectronic materials.

Researchers from the University of Exeter in the UK developed an innovative new method to engineer computer chips more easily and cheaper than conventional methods.

Scientists have developed a pioneering new technique to produce cutting-edge, versatile microchips that could revolutionise the speed, efficiency and capability of the next generation of computers.

Researchers from the University of Exeter in the UK developed an innovative new method to engineer computer chips more easily and cheaper than conventional methods.

The discovery could revolutionise the production of optoelectronic materials - or devices that produce, detect and control light - which are vital to the next generation of renewable energy, security and defence technologies, the researchers said.

"This breakthrough will hopefully lead to a revolution in the development of vital new materials for computer electronics," said Anna Baldycheva, from Exeters Centre for Graphene Science.

"The work provides a solid platform for the development of novel next-generation optoelectronic devices. Additionally, the materials and methods used are extremely promising for a wide range of further potential applications beyond the current devices," Baldycheva said.

The innovative new research focused on developing a versatile, multi-functional technology to significantly enhance future computing capabilities.

The team used microfluidics technology, which uses a series of minuscule channels in order to control the flow and direction of tiny amounts of fluid.

For this research, the fluid contains graphene oxide flakes, that are mixed together in the channels, to construct the chips.

NEW SOPHISTICATED LIGHT-BASED SYSTEM

While the graphene oxide flakes are two-dimensional - consisting of length and width only - the research team used a new sophisticated light-based system to drive the assembly of the three-dimensional chip structures.

Crucially, the research team have analysed their methodology to not only confirm the technique is successful, but also to provide a blueprint for others to use to help manufacture the chips.

"We are very excited about the potential of this breakthrough and look forward to seeing where it can take the optoelectronics industry in the future," Monica Craciun, Associate Professor of Nanoscience at Exeter added.

The research was published in the journal Scientific Reports.

Indian hacker reveals loophole in Uber app for lifetime of free rides

A hacker from Bangalore, in India, has uncovered a security loophole in the famous Uber app, which allows anyone to get lifetime of free rides. Yes, you heard it right — never pay Uber for your rides, ever!

The hacker, Anand Prakash, has revealed a video that shows us how anyone could have used the loophole within the Uber app to gain free rides for life. He mentions that the San Francisco-based transportation company, which has around 528 cities in its portfolio, has a security flaw. When a user creates an account on their portal and start riding, he can riding and pay after completion, either by credit or debit card or by cash or a wallet. However, when he specified an invalid payment method that he cannot pay from, the Uber app allowed him to ride for free.

He demonstrated the bug after taking due permissions from the Uber team. He showed the team how he could ride for free with the flaw in India and in the United States, and he wasn’t charged a penny.

He has posted the same details on his blog, as follows:

Vulnerable request:

POST /api/dial/v2/requests HTTP/1.1

Host: dial.uber.com

{"start_latitude":12.925151699999999,"start_longitude":77.6657536,

"product_id":"db6779d6-d8da-479f-8ac7-8068f4dade6f","payment_method_id":"xyz"}

Steps to reproduce:

1) Replayed the above request with random characters as payment_method_id.

2) Ride was free.

The proof of concept was demonstrated in the video below:

The hack may not be as simple as one thinks and cannot be easily replicated by any common user. You need to know a little scripting and coding and you could do the same too. However, the security flaw is now fixed by Uber — thanks to the hacker who has saved Uber from a huge loss, if someone would have exploited the flaw and it went unnoticed.

Uber’s security programme has around 200 researchers onboard who deal with bugs and exploits. The company pays up to $10,000 as an award for any critical issues identified and reported to them. Prakash is an ethical hacker and makes a living from finding security bugs. Uber has rewarded Prakash around $13,500 as a bounty programme. Prakash is also presently one of the top hackers with Facebook’s White Hat bug finding programme. He was the one to find the security flaw with Facebook where one can take over anyone’s Facebook account and change its password with ease. He received an award of $15,000 from Facebook.

IT firms in trouble as US halts premium H1B visa processing for 6 months

Uncertainty for the Indian information technology (IT) sector worsened, with the US suspending the processing of premium H1B visas citing a backlog of applications.

The move would adversely impact domestic software exporters such as Tata Consultancy Services (Tcs) and Infosys as well as multinational firms such as IBM and Google, who send engineers to work on projects in the US. 

Even as the US Citizenship and Immigration Services made this announcement, Indian Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar was in the US to engage with President Donald Trump’s administration, asking it to not impose restrictions on the entry of engineers. This suspension might last six months.

“Tier-I Indian IT services firms largely use the premium processing category for H1B visa for their employees, since they can easily afford the additional $1,225 fee. But, there will be uncertainty, as they will have to wait even for ongoing projects,” said Pareekh Jain of HfS Research India

Even if this suspension might have a short-term impact, this clearly hinted at a tougher immigration policy in the US, the biggest market for Indian IT companies, added Jain.

This means the IT services firms cannot send their employees on urgent projects after April 3, thereby impacting their quarterly business numbers. This delay would add to the existing uncertainties of pricing pressure for the large Indian IT services players. They will now have to plan at least three months in advance to send employees abroad, instead of a week as they now do.

“With this, all employers who want to send employees on H1B visas have to plan for even longer ahead,” said Poorvi Chothani of LawQuest, a global immigration and employment law firm. Thousand of IT sector employees go to the US on premium H1B visas.

While US President Trump had called for tougher immigration laws for technology companies, and had threatened to impose taxes on companies that moved work offshore, in his first State of the Union address to a joint session of the US Congress last week, he proposed having a merit-based immigration system like in Canada, Australia and other nations.

Those meeting emergency criteria might, however, still apply for a visa. 

“While premium processing is suspended, petitioners may submit a request to expedite an H1B petition if they meet the Expedite Criteria. It is the petitioner’s responsibility to demonstrate that they meet at least one of the expedite criteria, and we encourage petitioners to submit documentary evidence to support their expedite request,” said USCIS.

Industry analysts say given the backlog of petitions with the USCIS, the leeway though Expedite Criteria might not prove to be effective. 

T V Mohandas Pai, an IT industry veteran and former board member of Infosys, said this would not have much impact as the US government might resume this service soon.  

“This is a common thing and has happened before also. Applications for new visas though premium category usually submitted before April and the petitions sent after that are mostly for renewal,” said Pai.

On hold

The suspension of H1B visas, which might last six months, will adversely affect the IT sector

2015: Indians got nearly 69% of H1B visas issued

On the ground

Nasscom, the representative body for the Indian IT sector, says the US faces a serious shortage of computer science engineers 

Worrying matters

USCIS to suspend processing premium H1B  visas from April 3

Scientists just created electric circuits inside plants; here's how

How well these electrical networks formed surprised even their developers.

Stuart Thompson, University of Westminster

Plants power life on Earth. They are the original food source supplying energy to almost all living organisms and the basis of the fossil fuels that feed the power demands of the modern world. But burning the remnants of long-dead forests is changing the world in dangerous ways. Can we better harness the power of living plants today? 

One way might be to turn plants into natural solar power stations that could convert sunlight into energy far more efficiently. To do this, we’d need a way of getting the energy out in the form of electricity. One company has found a way to harvest electrons deposited by plants into the soil beneath them. But new research from Finland looks at tapping plants’ energy directly by turning their internal structures into electric circuits.

Plants contain water-filled tubes called “xylem elements” that carry water from their roots to their leaves. The water flow also carries and distributes dissolved nutrients and other things such as chemical signals. The Finnish researchers, whose work is published in PNAS, developed a chemical that was fed into a rose cutting to form a solid material that could carry and store electricity.

Previous experiments have used a chemical called PEDOT to form conducting wires in the xylem, but it didn’t penetrate further into the plant. For the new research, they designed a molecule called ETE-S that forms similar electrical conductors but can also be carried wherever the stream of water travelling though the xylem goes.

This flow is driven by the attraction between water molecules. When water in a leaf evaporates, it pulls on the chain of molecules left behind, dragging water up through the plant all the way from the roots. You can see this for yourself by placing a plant cutting in food colouring and watching the colour move up through the xylem. The researchers’ method was so similar to the food colouring experiment that they could see where in the plant their electrical conductor had travelled to from its colour.

The result was a complex electronic network permeating the leaves and petals, surrounding their cells and replicating their pattern. The wires that formed conducted electricity up to a hundred times better than those made from PEDOT and could also store electrical energy in the same way as an electronic component called a capacitor.

E-plants

How well these electrical networks formed surprised even their developers. This seems to be because when the roses were treated with ETE-S, they produced the same reactive chemicals that they use to kill invading microorganisms. These chemicals made the formation of the solid electrical conductor work much better inside the plant than when it was tested in the lab.

There are still challenges before this discovery can achieve its full potential. Perhaps most importantly, they need to find a way of getting ETE-S (or some further improved chemical) into intact, living plants. But the creation of “e-plants”, that is plants with integrated electronic circuits, now looks much closer.

So how could e-plants be used? The most exciting possibility will be if we can combine e-plant electrical storage and circuitry with some way to directly tap photosynthetic energy, creating a literally green energy source.

But the technology could also help us better understand regular plants. Plants do not have a nervous system as animals do, but they do use electrical signalsboth to control individual cells and two carry messages between different parts of the plant. Perhaps the most spectacular example of this is in the Venus flytrap, in which the snapping mechanism is activated by an electrical impulse.

Building electrical circuits into plants will allow us to listen into these messages more easily. Perhaps when we understand their “language” better, we will then be able to send instructions to the plant. For example turning on its defence systems if we know that it is at risk of disease.

Perhaps we could create electronic plants that function like machines. If a crop could tell us if it has too little water or fertiliser, or is being attacked by insects, we could move resources to where they are most needed, improving farming efficiency. Maybe one day you could even use the technology to adjust a flower’s fragrance to match your mood.

Stuart Thompson, Senior Lecturer in Plant Biochemistry, University of Westminster

Bengaluru to Chennai in 20 minutes: First hyperloop in India if citizens vote for it

Bengaluru may have India’s first hyperloop train as Los Angeles-based company Hyperloop One announced five new lines in India.

Minister, Suresh Prabhu, on Saturday, said that it is a futuristic idea and hinted that it would be a good project if people voted for it.

Hyperloop announced the project through a global challenge and is urging people to vote for the first line to be built in India.

The five proposed lines include Bengaluru to Chennai, Mumbai to Chennai via Bengaluru, Bengaluru to Thiruvananthapuram, Mumbai to Delhi and Mumbai to Kolkata.

If the proposed plane comes to life, people can reach Chennai from Bengaluru in 20 minutes. The traffic in the 334-km passenger and freight corridor is growing at 15% per annum. The 1,102 km Mumbai to Chennai via Bengaluru line is slated to have a travel period of 50 minutes.

“This has the potential of boosting the capacity of ports in Mumbai and Chennai and also create a link between the two coasts, a statement by Hyperloop One said.

Railway minister Suresh Prabhu, during his visit to Chennai on Saturday, said that the railway ministry was pursuing the project and that officials from Niti Ayog had met Hyperloop One representatives last week in this regard.

“We want to improve the speed of trains in India. We are also working on semi high-speed and high speed trains. Global players will be invited for proposing projects for a 600-km line as well. It is futuristic technology, which India must also have,” Prabhu told media persons.

He also said that the hyperloops would not be imported but the technology will be developed in India itself. The railway has tie-ups with Korea, Germany, Japan and China for introducing high-speed trains in the country, he added.

India received the highest entries when hyperloop One had called for registration. “India led the way with the most vocal supporters on social media,” the press release said. 

LeEco Closing Down Indian Operations? 85% Employees Fired, Senior Leaders Exit The Company

LeEco Closing Down Indian Operations? 85% Employees Fired, Senior Leaders Exit The Company

LeEco, the Chinese business conglomerate having interests in automobiles, bicycles, mobile phones, televisions, film productions, virtual reality, is reportedly closing down Indian operations. Founded by Chinese billionaire Jia Yueting, LeEco has actually fired 370 employees, which form 85% of their overall strength in India.

Staffs from marketing and sales from Delhi and Mumbai locations have been fired, and only a skeleton staff is running the show. Research and Development employees from Bangalore can remain employed because they are working for US operations as well.

Here are 3 strong indications which gives us a hint that Indian operations of LeEco may end, very soon:

Cash Running Out

After their Indian launch last year, LeEco shocked everyone with their brazen marketing spend, both online and offline. With an average spend of Rs 80 crore every month for marketing related activities, LeEco actually overtook Xiaomi and Oppo in their marketing expenditure. Last year, founder Jia Yueting admitted that they are running out of cash, even as he cut his salary to 15 cents. Last year in December, they stopped retail sales in offline locations, and now, they are on the verge of complete shut down in India.

Senior Leaders Quit

When such a trouble brews up, senior management leaders are the first to quit. And precisely that is happening with LeEco. Atul Jain, who was the COO of Electronics business and Debashish Ghosh, COO of Applications, Services and Content, have already left. This is one strong signal that LeEco’s Indian operations are indeed under fire.

Demonetization Effect

Another set of reports indicate that demonetization had a very negative impact on the overall sales of LeEco’s flagship models, and the shock was too massive to ignore. A senior executive working with a leading e-commerce portal, which partnered with LeEco for their Indian entry has confirmed this fact.

Diluting Focus, Spreading Too Thin

Within India, LeEco spread themselves too thin, by diluting their focus everywhere. Not only they were selling medium-range smartphones, but also initiated their sales and marketing campaign for high-end LED TVs besides researching into driverless cars. Branding focus was missing, and Rs 80 crore marketing blitz couldn’t help their cause. Amidst myriad 

smartphone brands and electronics giants, LeEco simply couldn’t carve out its niche. That unnamed executive from e-commerce portal said, “Xiaomi is strong online and Oppo-Vivo offline. So, LeEco found it neither here nor there,”. As per reports, LeEco will redraw their strategy, and focus entirely on US and China market, where they have been performing relatively well. India is simply out of their focus now.

LeEco India’s CEO Alex Li has denied that they are shutting down Indian operations, and he also denied the count of employees which are being fired. He said, “All businesses need to be profitable to be sustainable. That has been the primary objective in taking certain measures, though the numbers (of layoffs) indicated are incorrect,”